Virginia Car Accident Lawyer
A Virginia car accident lawyer can help individuals pretty much every step of the claim process. From the very beginning, a Virginia injury attorney can advise you of what your rights are and how to protect them. In addition, an attorney can communicate with the other party’s insurance company on your behalf.
- Five Ways An Attorney Can Help
- Common Causes of Car Accidents in Virginia
- First Steps To Take Following a Car Accident
- Damages in Virginia Car Accident Cases
- First Steps to Take Following An Accident
- Biggest Mistakes To Avoid After An Accident in VA
- Filing a Car Accident Claim in Virginia
- Laws That May Impact a VA Car Accident Injury Claim
Attorneys Can Help in Building a Case
Attorneys can help in a number of ways, including:
- Helping with insurance companies
- Putting other party’s insurance on notice of a claim
- Working to collect medical records
- Helping with problems with treatment
- Helping clients find another doctor
- Investigating the cause of the accident
- Identifying witnesses
- Gathering evidence
- Helping clients start building a case as soon as possible
Another role that a Virginia car accident attorney has is being part of your support system and a sounding board; if you’re going through a really tough time, an attorney can listen and be there for emotional support. They can help to gather together all the documents necessary to prove your claim and to start working to negotiate a resolution as soon as you’re done with treatment. They can also help with just answering practical questions as far as what your obligations are for going back to work or whether your insurance might cover medical treatment or lost wages.
A Virginia car accident lawyer really can help every step of the way, and what we try to do is to make sure our clients focus on getting better and getting back to work if they’re working, or getting back to school if they’re a student, and let us take care of everything else.
Deciding To File a Car Accident Case
If you file a claim with the other party’s insurance company, the most obvious reason is that you can recover compensation for your injury and your other damages, which can include:
- Economic damages
- Loss of wages
- Costs of medical care
- Possible replacement of client’s vehicle
- Other property damage
In addition to that there are also non-economic damages like your pain and suffering. Basically any impact that the injuries that you sustain have on your daily life is compensable. For instance, if an injury impacts things like getting dressed in the morning, washing dishes, cooking dinner, taking your dog for a walk, picking up your grandchildren, playing with your children, and going to the gym. Basically any impact that your injuries have in your life is compensable.
Sometimes you need to get a little creative for how you can connect that to what the law allows, but that’s what an attorney’s job is. It’s usually just a matter of what legally needs to be proved and how you’re going to get there. If liability is in question or if the damages are challenged by the defendant’s insurance company, you may have to file a lawsuit in order to be able to recover.
Going to Trial Isn’t Always the Answer
If you can resolve things short of filing a lawsuit, you’re going to save a lot of time and money that goes into litigating the case. There are some things you may not recover through a settlement that you might be able to get from litigating the case. The most important thing to keep in mind is that a settlement is a sure thing and there’s always risk involved in going to trial. But some cases do need to be tried.
A settlement is a compromise so it may not be as much value as you could get if the jury finds in your favor on every aspect in a case, they think all of your medical treatment was reasonable, they find the defendant’s behavior to be reprehensible, and they want to take them to task and there’s actually enough coverage on the insurance to make it worthwhile to try the case.
Sometimes you can definitely have a great day in court and in some cases that’s what you need to do. Other times a settlement is the better route. An experienced VA car accident attorney will be able to advise you about the best decision for your case.
Finding an Attorney You Can Trust
Trust is extremely important. It’s the bedrock of the attorney-client relationship. We have attorney-client privilege in place for a reason and that is to foster open and honest communication. Privilege is basically things that are revealed to an attorney in confidence that the attorney cannot then reveal to other people.
It’s extremely important to be honest. If you’re not forthcoming with your lawyer, if you don’t tell them about prior accidents or prior injuries, it’s not going to do anything to help you. It’s only going to hurt your case.
If you’re embarrassed by something, just know that the reason there is confidentiality and privilege is so you can be open and honest and let your lawyer build the strongest case for you. One of the best ways to make sure there’s trust is to have frequent conversations with your client. Ideally you get a chance to meet with them face to face early on in the process. That really goes a long way toward building and fostering trust.